Toffee Ginger Fudgy Cupcakes

I know, I know...it's been a while since my last post!! I've been busy working, and also not working - at home with a cold and not wanting to cough all over my baking.

On Friday I finally felt well enough to try out a recipe that was recommended to me...and of course, they went down a treat at the church music team dinner, more popular than my chai (spice-tea) and vanilla flavoured cupcakes!

Here's the recipe....enjoy!!

Toffee Ginger Fudgy Cupcakes

Ingredients:

100g soft butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp golden syrup

1 cup self raising flour, sifted

2 medium eggs, beaten

To decorate (optional):

Pieces of fudge or crystallised stem ginger

For the fudgy icing:

25g butter

½ cup brown sugar

2 tbsp single cream

1 cup icing sugar, sifted

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6.

Place paper cake cases in a 12-hole muffin tin.

Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric beater for 2-3 minutes until pale and creamy.

Beat in the ginger, vanilla and golden syrup until combined.

Gradually add a little flour and some of the egg, beating well after each addition. Repeat until all the flour and egg has been added.

Spoon into the paper cases and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden and well risen.

Place on a wire rack to cool.

Make the icing just before you are ready to ice the cakes.

Melt the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan.

Bring to the boil, add the cream and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and beat in the icing sugar until smooth. If the icing becomes too stiff, add a tablespoon of boiling water and beat again.

Spread the icing over the cakes and decorate with chunks of fudge, or crystallised ginger.

An Asian Spin

After being in Vietnam I deperately wanted to make some cupcakes that were even a tiny bit Asian...which is kind of a big ask, as they don't do cupcakes at all, and even cakes or muffins are not done well - everything's spongy and bland, with maybe a hint of lemon or coconut. The closest thing to cupcakes was donuts - for their interesting toppings and funky icing designs. But even then, you get a dry donut underneath not a moist delicious cupcake.

Anyway, much googling ensued, and the most popular "Asian" cupcake I could find was a cherry blossom design, which is very Japanese, not Vietnamese, but close enough! In Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess", there are several cupcake recipes, so I thought I'd try my hand at chocolate-cherry cupcakes. The promise of melting chocolate to add to the batter was certainly tempting me.

The only ingredient not usually in my pantry was the cherry jam, which was expensive and delicious, so I begrudged using it all. I ended up substituting some plum jam and adding some chopped glace cherries to keep up the cherry-ness.

For the icing, I started with a swirl of plain vanilla icing.

Then I piped chocolate icing, a few lines on each cake, to look like branches.
The final step was to add delicate little pink blossom's, some ended up quite messy, but I decided that I rather liked the messy look rather than perfect identical little flowers. Since when are all the flowers on a tree the same anyway?

As I've done many times, I tested the taste and icing design on my only-too-willing homegroup, who were all satisfied, and the girls, especially, loved the pretty blossom design.

Bon Appetit!

a belated Easter post

Apologies for the lateness of this post, but I've been overseas in Vietnam for a 3 week holiday, and meant to do this before I went...oops. Just wanted to share a simple decorating idea for Easter. Below is the picture of a chocolate cupcake with chocolate butter frosting, topped with 3 tiny Easter eggs. I found these eggs at the supermarket, and also saw similar ones at The Warehouse (New Zealand). They're chocolate inside, coated with candy, like m&m's, but are cute pastel colours with speckles, so look quite realistic!

I made these for a church fundraiser, and they were very popular. Also popular were my choc-mint cupcakes. Also VERY easy, simple chocolate cupcake recipe, butter frosting with a splash of mint essence and tiny amounts of blue and yellow food colouring (if you're smart enough to buy green then kudos to you!).

I decorate these with chocolate chips and a mint-leaf lolly. I couldn't find these in any supermarket bulk bins or packets, but found them at a local dairy.

Here is the chocolate cupcakes recipe I use. It looks long but it's not so bad - just takes two stages as you melt cocoa into hot water first (best done earlier as it needs to cool before adding to reat of mixture).

Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe
1/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 cup (240 ml) boiling hot water
1 1/3 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (113 grams) butter, room temperature
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:
120 grams unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
150 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.
In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.
Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. You can either spread the frosting on the cupcakes with a small spatula or if piping, use a large Wilton 1M open star tip to make lovely swirls.
Chocolate Frosting: Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy (about 2 -3 minutes).

Holiday reverie cupcakes

recently there was a full-family holiday...by that I mean my parents, my siblings, their spouses and children (only 3 so far!). I just knew that I had to make cupcakes at some stage, and why not involve the oldest nephew, who would delight in being included. He already helps his Mum with her baking, I had previously noticed him playing with sand at the beach - stirring, scooping, declaring " just a little bit of ginger for the gingerbread man!"

But!! Trouble ensued - I had brought my traditional cupcake recipe, and over the few days of coffee and pancakes, we had used up ALL the sugar. My husband unknowlingly saved the day by giving me a present for our 2 year wedding anniversary that very day..."How to be a Domestic Goddess" by Nigella Lawson. And it had a recipe...for brown sugar cupcakes! I didn't do exactly as the recipe said, but after having a look at quantities and method, ended up simply replacing the white sugar in my traditional recipe with brown sugar, and it worked really well!! And no, I won't keep the recipe to myself greedily. Enjoy!

Cream 1 cup butter (softened) and 1 cup sugar (usually caster sugar, in this case brown sugar!)

Add 3 egss, beating well until light and fluffy.

Add 1/2 C milk, 1 and 1/2 C self-raising flour, and 1 tsp vanilla. Keep beating with an electric beater til creamy.

Divide mixture between 12 cupcake cases in a muffin tray. Depending on the type of paper, you may need to grease them (I use a ricebran oil light spray, so easy!)

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 160C, until risen and a delicious golden brown on top.

I iced these with an easy icing sugar, butter and hot water icing, so as to be child-friendly, I wasn't going for gourmet! I had also brought some chocolate candy-covered sprinkles up to the holiday house, Caleb delighted in dipping his spoon into the pot and sprinkling generously on the cupcakes.

It begins...

Welcome to my first ever blog!!
I'm excited to think about all the possibilities for new and existing customers and friends of "Cupcake Joy".
I feel very much that I am still at the humble beginnings of hopefully a successful journey. After posting a few photos of my cupcake experiments on facebook, a Uni classmate approached me to make cupcakes for her daughter's birthday party...and the official selling of cupcakes began!
It's been a slow start with only a few other parties, and some very early starts at the local Takapuna markets.
I'm relying on word of mouth to get my name and beautiful cupcakes out there, so if you hear of anyone wanting cupcakes for a wedding, party, gift, or any event, please let me know!
watch this space for new designs and experiments...and also my facebook page, search for cupcake joy!

love
*joy*